PAGE 30

valley of the Susquehanna, which at this point, to one going above, begins a long and unnecessary ramble to the east. A direct road to the Genesee would cross a ridge of the Alleganies. An Indian trail, often trod during the revolution by parties from fastnesses of the Six Nations, ran over the mountains, but to open a road through the shattered wilderness, which would be passable for wagons was deemed impossible.
     After a laborious exploration, however, by the agent and a party of Pennsylvania hunters, a road was located from "Ross Farm" - now Williamsport - to the mouth of Canaseraga creek, on the Genesee, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. This road was opened in the ensuing autumn by a party of German emigrants.
     It was in the month of September when the emigrants appeared at the mouth of Lycoming creek, ready for the march to the northern paradise. A little way up the creek they commenced hewing the road. Here the Germans took their first lessons in wood-craft. They were not apt apprentices, and never carried the art to great perfection. We hear of them afterward sawing trees down. A old gentleman who came over the road in an early day, says the trees looked as if they had been gnawed down by beaver.*
     "The heavy frontier axe - nine pounder, often - was to them a very grievous thing. They became weary and lame; the discomforts of the woods were beyond endurance, and their complaints grew longer and more doleful at each sunset. The men wept and cursed Colonel Williamson bitterly, saying that he had sent them there to die. They became mutinous. 'I could compare my situation,' said Ben Patterson, their guide, 'to nothing but Moses with the children of Israel. I would march them along a few miles, and they would rise up and rebel.' "
     At "Canoe Camp," a few miles below the present village of Mansfield, they put the sick and the women and children in canoes and launched forth into the river, while the men followed by land. Patterson told them to keep the Indian trail, but as this sometimes went back into the hills, and out of sight of the river, they dared not follow it for fear of being lost. So they scrambled along the shore as best they could, keeping their eyes fixed on the flotilla as if their lives depended upon it. They tumbled over the banks; they tripped up over roots; where the shores were rocky they waded in the cold water below. But the canoes gliding merrily downward, wheeled at last into the Chemung, and the men beheld with joy the little cabins clustered around the Painted Post.
     It was now December. They had been three months in the wilderness and were not in a condition to move onward to the Genesee.

*Turner's "Phelp's and Gorham Purchase."

PAGE 31

Patterson, with thrity of the most hardy men, kept on however, and opened the road up the Conhocton to Dansville and the place of destination. The others remained through the winter of 1793 at Painted Post. The whole colony was conducted to the Genesee in the spring.
     Notwithstanding their manifold tribulations, the Germans were deposited at the Genesee with the loss of but one man, who was killed in the mountains by a falling tree. At Williamsburg they were abundantly provided for. Each family received a house and fifty acres of land, with a stock of provisions for present use, and household and farming utensils. Cattle and sheep were distributed among them, and nothing remained for them to do but to fall to work and cultivate their farms. But it soon became apparent that they were lazy, shiftless and of the most appalling stupidity. Breeding cattle were barbecued. Seeds, instead of being planted in the fields, vanished in their kettles; and when provisions were exhausted, Colonel Williamson was called upon to dispatch a file of pack-horses to their relief.
     At length they broke out into open and outrageous rebellion. Mutiny lasted several days, till the sheriff of Ontario county mustered a posse of sufficient strength to quell them and arrest their ringleaders. They were finally transferred to Canada, greatly to the relief of the London association and their agent, to whom the colony had been from the beginning nothing but a source of expense and vexation.*
     Writing of the year 1794, and enumerating some of the improvements inaugurated by Colonel Williamson, General McClure, in his narrative written in 1850, and published in McMaster's History, says: "The next project that claimed his" - Colonel Williamson's - "attention, was the improvement of our streams. They were then called 'creeks,' but when they came to be improved and made navigable for arks and rafts, their names were changed to those of rivers. The Colonel ordered the Conhocton and Mud creeks to be explored by a competent committee, and a report to be made and an estimate of the probable expense required to make them navigable for arks and rafts. The report of the committee was favored. A number of hands were employed to remove obstructions and open a passage to Painted Post, which was done, through the channel still remained very imperfect and dangerous. The Conhocton was declared navigable above Liberty Corners. The first attempt at clearing the channel was made on the strength of a fund of seven hundred dollars, raised by subscription.
     "The question was then asked, 'who shall be the first adventurer?' We had not as yet any surplus produce to spare, but lumber was a staple commodity, and was in great demand at Harrisburgh, Columbia and Baltimore. I therefore came to the conclusion to try the experiment the next spring. I went to work and built an ark seventy-five feet long and sixteen feet wide and in course of the winter got out a cargo of pipe and hogshead staves, which I knew would turn to good

*McMaster.

PAGE 32

account should I arrive safely at Baltimore. All things being ready, with cargo on board, and a good pitch of water and a first-rate set of hands, we put out our unwieldy vessel into the stream, and away we went at a rapid rate, and in about half an hour reached Whites Island, five miles below Bath. There we ran against a large tree that lay across the river. We made fast our ark to the shore, cut away the tree, repaired damages, and the next morning took a fair start. It is unnecessary to state in detail the many difficulties we encountered before we reached Painted Post, but in about six days we got there. The Chemung river had fallen so low that we were obliged to wait for a rise of water. In four or five days we were obliged to wait for a rise of water. In four or five days we were favored with a good pitch of water. We made a fresh start, and in our four days ran two hundred miles to Mohontongo, a place twenty miles from Harrisburgh, where, through the ignorance of the pilot, we ran upon a bar of rocks in the middle of the river, where it was one mile wide. There we lay twenty-four hours, no one coming to our relief or to take us on shore. At last a couple of gentlemen came on board and told us it was impossible to get the ark off until a rise of water. One of the gentlemen inquired, apparently very carelessly, what it cost to build an ark of that size, and how many thousand staves we had on board. I suspected his object, and answered him in his own careless manner. He asked if I did not wish to sell the ark and cargo. I told him I would prefer going through if there was any chance of a rise of water - that pipe staves, in Baltimore, were worth eighty dollars per thousand; but if you wish to purchase and will make me a generous offer, I will think of it. He offered me $600. I told him that was hardly half the price of the cargo at Baltimore, but if he would give me $800, I would close a bargain with him. He said he had a horse, saddle and bridle on shore worth $200, which he would add to the $600. We all went on shore. I examined the horse and considered him worth the $200. We closed the bargain and I started for Bath. I lost nothing by the sale, but if I had succeeded in reaching Baltimore I should have cleared $500.
     "The same spring Jacob Bartles, and his brother-in-law Mr. Harvey, made their way down Mud creek with one ark and some rafts. Bartles mill-pond and Mud lake afforded water sufficient at any time, by drawing a gate, to carry arks and rafts out of the creek. Harvey lived on the west branch of the Susquehanna, and understood the management of such crafts.
     "Thus it was ascertained to a certainty, that, by improving those streams we could transport our produce to Baltimore - a distance of three hundred miles - in the spring of the year for a mere trifle."
     As this illustrates the state of the country and makes known the earliest efforts put forth to establish a commerce with the outside world, we continue the narrative.
     "In the year 1795 I went to Albany on horseback. There was no road from Cayuga lake to Utica better than an Indian trail, and no accommodations that I found better than Indian Wigwams. * * *
     I had got it into my head to dispose of my chest of tools and turn merchant. I therefore settled my accounts with Colonel Williamson. He gave me a draft on a house in Albany for $1,500, accompanied by letters of rec-

PAGE 33

ommendation. I laid in a large assortment of merchandise, and shipped them on board a Mohawk boat. Being late in the fall, winter set in, and the boat got frozen up in the river about thirty miles west of Schenectady, at a place called the "Cross Widows," otherwise called the widow Veeders. Here the goods lay for about two months till a slegh road was opened from Utica to Cayuga lake. About the last of January I started with sleighs after my goods, and in two weeks arrived in Bath.
     "At this time there were no white inhabitants between Seneca river and Niagara, a distance of ninety miles. * * * My next start in business was attended with a little better success. My brother Charles kept a small store in Bath, and in the year 1800 we entered into partnership. I moved to Dansville, opened a store, and remained there one year. I did a safe business, and took in that winter four thousand bushels of wheat and two hundred barrels of pork - built four arks at Arkport, on the Canisteo rever, and ran them down to Baltimore. These were the first arks that descended the Canisteo. * * * At this time I purchased the Cold Spring mill site, half way between Bath and Crooked Lake, of one Skinner, a Quaker, with two hundred acres of land, and purchased from the land office and others about eight hundred acres, to secure the whole privilege. Here I erected a flouring-mill, saw-mill, fulling-mill and carding machine. I perceived that wheat would be the principal staple of farmers, and I also knew from experience that there would be great risk in running wheat to Baltimore down a very imperfect and dangerous navigation, and the risk in running flour, well packed, comparatively small. * * * * * * I received in the course of the winter 20,000 bushels of wheat, two-thirds of which I floured and packed at my mills; built in the winter eight arks at Bath, and four on the Canisteo. In the spring I ran the flour to Baltimore and the wheat to Columbia. The river was in fine order, and we made a prosperous voyage and a profitable sale. I cleared enough that spring to pay all my expenditures and improvements on the Cold Spring property. After disposing of my cargo I went to Philadelphia and settled with my merchants, laid in a very extensive assortment of goods, loaded two boats at Columbia, and sent them up the river to Painted Post.
     "My next project was to build a schooner on Crooked Lake, of about thirty tons burden, for the purpose of carrying wheat from Penn Yan to the head of the lake. I advertised the schooner "Sally," as a regular trader on Crooked Lake, the embargo to the contrary notwithstanding (for Jefferson's long embargo had then got into operation). * * * *
     "I erected a store-house at each end of the lake. The vessel and store-houses cost me $1,400. The whole, as it turned out, was a total loss, as the lake was frozen over at the time I most wanted to use it. The farmers did not carry their wheat to market before winter. * *
     "There was not at that time any other market for wheat, until the great canal was finished as far as Cayuga. Wheat was brought to my mill from all parts of Seneca and Ontario counties and the Genesee river. * * * * * * * * *
     "Indians were very numerous at that time. Their hunting camps were within short distances of each other all over the county. The Indian trade was then an object. I hired a chief of the name of Kettle-

PAGE 34

Hoop, from Buffalo, to teach me the Seneca language. He spoke good English. All words that related to the Indian trade or traffic I wrote down in one column, and opposite gave the interpretation in Seneca, and so I enlarged my dictionary from day to day for three or four weeks, until I got a pretty good knowledge of the language. I then set out on a trading expedition amongst the Indian encampments, and took my teacher along, who introduced me to his brethren as Seoscagena, that is very good man. They laughed very heartily at my pronounciation. I told them I had a great many goods at Tanighnaguanda, that is, Bath. I told them to come and see me, and bring all their furs and peltry, and gammon, - that is, hams of deer - and I would buy them all and pay them in goods very cheap. They asked me Tegoye-ezecthgath and Negaugh, that is, have you rum and wine, or firewater. That fall, in the hunting season, I took in an immense quantity of furs, peltry and deer hams. Their price for gammon, large or small, was two shillings. I salted and smoked that winter about three thousand hams, and sold them next spring in Baltimore and Philadelphia for two shillings per pound. * * * * The next spring I started down the rivers Conhocton and Canisteo, with a large fleet of arks loaded with flour, wheat, pork and other articles. The embargo being in full force, the price of flour and wheat was very low. At Havre de Grace I made fast tow or three arks loaded with wheat to the stern of a small schooner which lay anchored in the middle of the stream, about half a mile from shore. Being ebb tide, together with the current of the stream, we could not possibly land our arks. Night setting in there was no time to be lost in getting them to shore, as there was a strong wind down the bay, and it would be impossible to save them if they should break loose from the schooner. I left the arks in charge of William Edwards of Bath, whilst I went on shore to procure help to tow the arks to shore. Whilst I was gone the wind increased, and the master of the schooner hallowed to Edwards, who was in one of the arks, that he would cut loose, as there was danger that he would be dragged into the bay and get lost, and he raised his ax to cut the cables. Edwards swore that if he cut the cables he would shoot him down on the spot, and raising a hand-spike, took deliberate airm. It being dark, the Captain could not distinguish between a handspike and a rifle. This brought him to terms. He dropped the ax and told Edwards that if he would engage that I should pay him for his vessel in case she should be lost, he would not cut loose. Edwards pledged himself that I would do so.
"When I got on shore I went to a man named Smith, who had a fishing and a large boat with eighteen oars, and about forty Irishmen in his employ, and offered to hire his boat and hands. He was drunk, and told me with an oath, that I and my arks might go to the d___l. He would neither let the boat nor his hands go. I went into the shanty of the Irishmen, and putting on an Irish brogue, told them of my distree. 'The d___l take Smith, we will help our countryman, by my shoul boys,' said their leader. They manned the boat, and the arks were brought to shore in double-quick time. They refused to take pay, and I took them to a tavern and ordered them as much as they chose to drink. My friend Edwards and those jolly Irishmen saved my arks and cargo. * * * * * * * * * *

PAGE 35

     "I purchased in the fall droves of cattle and sent them to Philadelphia. I also stall-fed forty head of the best and largest cattle in winter, which I shipped on arks to Columbia, and down to Philadelphia, where they sold to good advantage. This mode of sending fat cattle to market astonished the natives as we passed down the river. It proved to be a profitable business. * * * In 1816 I ran down to Baltimore about 1,000,000 feet of pine lumber and 100,000 feet of cherry boards and curled maple. I chartered three brigs and shipped my cheryy and curled maple and five hundred barrels of flour to Boston. I sold my flour at a fair price, but my lumber was a dead weight on my hands. At length an inventor for spinning wool by water-power offered to sell me one of his machines for $2,500 and take lumber in payment. I closed a bargain with him, which induced me to embark in woolen manufacture. I obtained a loan from the state, and was doing well until congress reduced the tariff for the protection of home industries to a mere nominal tax. The country immediately after was flooded with foreign fabrics, and but few woolen factories survived the shock.
     "I will now close my narrative so far as it relates to my own business concerns with a single remark, that although I have been unfortunate at the close of my business, yet I flatter myself that all will admit that I have done nothing to retard the growth and prosperity of the village of Bath, or the inhabitants of Steuben county generally, especially at the time when there were no facilities for the farmers of the county to transport their produce to market other than that which was afforded by my exertions. And whether the people of Steuben or myself have received the most benefit, I leave for them to determine. * "
     We cannot withhold our admiration of the wisdom of those men upon whom devolved the duty of shaping legislation upon the subject of highways. The plan adopted was that of granting charters to companies for the construction of turnpikes in all parts of the state.
     The next step in the matter of internal improvements was the construction of canals. The Hudson and Erie was opened for traffic in 1825 to the great advantage of the State at large, but with very little direct benefit to the people of Steuben county until the construction some years later of the Crooked Lake canal from Penn Yan to Dresden, the Cayuga and Seneca canal and the Chemung canal, which made an outlet north by way of the lakes to the Erie.
     At the first sessio of the Sixth Congress of the United States, 1799-1800, a mail route was established from the Hudson, by way of Kattskill, Harpersfield, Oleout, Unadilla and Windsor in New York, to Tioga Point - now Athens - Pa. The same act provided for a mail route from Wilkesbarre, by way of Wyalusing, Tioga Point, Newtown - now Elmira - Painted Post and Bath, to Canandaigua. Previous to that we are told that Captain Williamson paid all expenses of transport-

*A biography of Gen. George McClure will be found in the history of Bath.

PAGE 36

ing the mail once a week to and from Northumberland. An old Frenchman lived at the "Block-House" on Laural Ridge, sixty-five miles distant from Bath. Thomas Corbit, the mail rider in 1794, went thither weekly for the Steuben county bag.
     It is difficult to conceive how a mail could have been conveyed over these routes, where there were neigher roads nor bridges.
     Early in the present century the building of turnpike roads engaged the attention of enterprising minds. On a map of western New York, published in 1809, we find the Lake Erie turnpike road, running from a point on Lake Erie which could not have been far from the present village of Westfield in Chautauqua county, to Bath and connectiong there with the Susquehanna and Bath turnpike which ran through Catharines and Ithaca; and also with the Great Bend and Bath turnpike road through Newtown and Owego.
     In September, 1820, Leonard and Bacon of Owego established a weekly mail stage between Owego and Bath, and in 1825, Stephen B. Leonard established a line of coaches running twice a week between the same points. Subsequently Lewis Manning and his son, Chester J. Manning of Owego, Major Morgan of Chenango Point, Cooley and Maxwell of Newtown and John Magee of Bath, became proprietors of the great Southern Tier Mail and Passenger Coach Line, between Newburgh on the Hudson and Bath, which became a daily line, and continued until the opening of the New York and Erie railroad in 1849. Thus the first fifty years of this century were a period in which were made three marked advances in the mail service; first, from the irregular and chance service - for the pioneer was dependent upon private hands and chance ways and means for receiving by letter or verbal communication, intelligence from distant friends - to one of intervals of two weeks; second, a mail twice each week, and improving to daily delivery; third, the present mail service by railroad beginning in 1850.
     The changes wrought in the facilities for travel, commerce, transportation of mails, the invention of the telegraph, all within less than half a century, are as marvellous as the thousand and one tales of the "Arabian Night's Entertainments."
     In 1789, there were but seventy-five post-offices in the United States, seven of which were in New York, viz.: Albany, Claverack, Fishkill, Kinderhook, New York, Poughkeepsie and Rhinebeck. The number of post-offices in Steuben county to-day is ninety. The total number of post-roads in the United States in 1789 was one thousand seven hundred and sixty-three miles, and the whole extent in the state of New York was one hundred and sixty miles, or between New York and Albany. In January, 1890, the total number of postoffices in the United

PAGE 37

States was fifty-nine thousand, and in the state of New York three thousand, three hundred and sixty four.
     The New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Company was incorporated as the New York & Erie Railroad Company April 24, 1832. In 1861 it was re-organized, this time under its present corporate title. The first section of the road was opened for traffic from Piermont to Goshen in 1841; from Goshen to Middletown in June, 1843; to Port Jervis in January, 1848; to Binghamton in December, 1848; to Elmira in October, 1848; to Corning in January, 1850; to Hornellsville, September 3, 1850, and through to Dunkirk, the western terminus, April 22, 1851.
     The opening of the road brought a wealthy and comparatively isolated section of the State in direct communication with the sea-board, and it soon became the outlet for a large western traffic.
     Although the "Erie," as it is familiarly called, has had a checkered career, it has ever been regarded as one of the representative railways of the United States. The main line of this road crosses the towns of Corning, Erwin, Addison, Rathbone, Cameron, Canisteo and Hornellsbille in this county.
     In 1852, the Buffalo, Corning and New York Railroad - now the Rochester branch of the Erie - was completed to Corning, giving an outlet to a vast agricultural and lumber district. It connects with the main line at Corning and traverses the towns of Erwin, Campbell, Bath, Avoca, Cohocton and Wayland.
     The old Corning and Blossburgh - now the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim Railroad - forms a continuous line from Antrim in the coal regions of Pennsylvani, via the Syracuse, Geneva and Corning to its connection with the four-track New York Central road at Lyons, N. Y., and with the Erie canal.
     The Syracuse, Geneva and Corning railroad was chartered August 27, 1875, and the road was opened December 10, 1877. It is leased and operated by the Fall Brook Coal Company, as is also the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim Railroad with its branches.
     The Bath and Hammondsport Railroad, organized January 17, 1872, was opened June 30, 1875. It extends from Bath village to Hammondsport at the head of Lake Keuka, through Pleasant Valley, a section renowned for its beauty and fertility. The road was leased to Allan Wood for ninety-nine years from December 15, 1874. Mr. Wood sold his lease to H. S. Stebbins in December, 1886. In 1889, the lease passed to the ownership of C. W. Drake, of New York, who changed it from narrow to standard gauge, July 22, 1889.
     The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, as it passes through Steuben county, traverses the towns of Corning, Erwin, Campbell,

PAGE 38

Bath, Avoca, Cohocton and Wayland. It was originally built as the New York, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, chartered August 24, 1880, and opened for through freight business September 17, 1882. On October 22, 1882, it was leased to the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company in perpetuity, thus extending the line of that company from Binghamton to the International Bridge at Buffalo.
     The Addison and Pennsylvania Railway was chartered in New York June 19, 1882, and in Pennsylvania July 13, the same year. It is a narrow gauge road; and extends from Addison to Galeton, Pa., with a branch from Gurnee Junction to Gurnee. The roads were opened for business November 27, 1882, and the companies consolidated in 1884. The principal offices of the company are at Addison.
     The Rochester, Hornellsville and Lackawanna Railroad was incorporated June 9, 1886, with a capital stock of $300,000, John McDougal president and I. W. Near secretary. The road was opened for business January 25, 1888. It makes some important railroad connections which are of great value to Steuben county, and Western New York and Pennsylvania. At Hornellsville it connects with the Erie, and at Wayland with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western for all points east and west, and also connects with the New York and Pennsylvania Railroad at Swains which gives direct communication with Rochester and New York and intermediate points without change of cars, and also for Olean, Oil City, Pittsburgh, etc. In October, 1889, this road was consolidated with the Lackawanna and Southwestern under the title of Rochester, Lackawanna and Southwestern. It is now operated by a receiver under its first corporate title.
     The Kanona and Prattsburgh Railroad was organized in April 1888, with M. Pinney president, T. VanTuyl vice-president and A. K. Smith treasurer. Ground was broken July 29, 1888, and the first train ran over the road October 8, 1889. On April 6, 1889, C. M. Renchan was made superintendent of construction and continued as superintendent of the road after it went into operation, until January 1, 1890, when he resigned and was succeeded by J. G. Baker. Mr. Baker surveyed the road and was chief engineer of construction. the road, which is standard guage, connects with the Erie and with the D. L. & W. R. R. at Kanona, and traverses the town of Wheeler to Prattsburgh. Doubtless this road will be constructed north to the lakes, and ultimately will connect with the New York Central.
     The first telegraph line in this county was that of the "New York and Erie Telegraph Association," a corporation of which Ezra Cornell was leading spirit and he was the builder of the line. It was commonly known as "Cornell's Line," and was begun in 1847 and completed in 1849. It ran along the public roads from New York, through Harlem,

PAGE 39

White Plains, Sing Sing, Peekskill, Goshen, Middletown, Monticello, Hinsdale, Montrose, Binghamton, Ithaca, Bath, Dansville, Nunda and Pike to Fredonia. Cornell and the gentlemen associated with him hoped to make it a great through route for western business in competition with the line of the New York, Albany and Buffalo Company, which, as the name indicates ran through Central New York, and was then the great artery through which flowed the business between the east and the west. The Cornell line was a financial failure. It was for a time leased to the N.Y.A. & B. Co., who soon relinquished it and after a time it was transferred to the Erie road. This line traversed the towns of Bath and Cohocton, and in the former town followed a highway which is still known as the "telegraph road.' *

*W. J. Holmes, Supt. W. U. Tel. Co.

BACK

NEXT

CONTENTS